'It's like the worst movie you could ever think of'

Dewi Cooke and Darren Gray

Megan and Shayne Cheney, who lost their dream home in Koornalla, sit in what was once a popular camping site nearby. The couple escaped the flames by minutes. Photo: Wayne Taylor

THE material heart of Callignee has been reduced to rubble and twisted rooftops. The small township of 500 people lost 80 per cent of its houses during the fire that ripped through it at the weekend, leaving valleys darkened and hills scorched.

There is little left of the settlment's main buildings — the CFA station and community hall — while on the twisting roads nearby lie the burnt-out wrecks of cars that failed to make it out, at least one of their drivers dying as he tried to escape the fire on foot. The charred bodies of livestock can also be seen.

"I'm 40 years in the fire brigade, I've travelled," local fire captain and Callignee resident Ian Ewart said. "I've seen some very big fires and this is the worst destruction I've ever seen."

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Forensic teams tour the area to sift through the debris. But while all that remains of some homes are brick chimneys and concrete water tanks, other properties appear to have survived unscathed. One buttermilk-coloured home sits pristine in a blackened gully, even its plastic water tanks apparently intact, thanks, firefighters believe, to its position at the base of a hill and the wide perimeter of cleared scrub that surrounds it.

Seventeen of Callignee's small team of CFA volunteers have lost their homes.

Despite the devastation, the true heart of Callignee beats strongly. Mr Ewart said he felt "overwhelmed" by the efforts of residents to support one another in the aftermath — locals who, without being asked, were clearing roads of debris on Sunday morning, feeding neighbours' livestock or mending fences.

"A house can be replaced … the memories will always be there, but people, you can't replace that," he said.

Down the road in Traralgon South, volunteers Royce Frantz and Daryl Goodwin described the frantic efforts to stop the weekend's blaze from entering their community and to save lives. Sometimes they were successful, other times not. One couple refused to leave their house as the fire set in, choosing instead to defend it. They haven't been seen since.

"It's like the worst movie you could ever think of," Mr Frantz said.

At one stage, the official police death toll for the hills and gullies of Callignee climbed to 12, but police are no longer releasing an official death toll by township or fire region. On Tuesday, the number of deaths from the Gippsland fires (Churchill fires) was as high as 21. The exact death toll, however, is unknown.

It remains a long and draining process for authorities to assess the extent of the damage from the Churchill fires because of the vast size of the blaze, about 40,000 hectares, and the topography of the region.

Rainfall of about five millimetres yesterday hampered some firefighting, particularly in more remote terrain, making tracks slippery for vehicles. Low cloud has also prevented aircraft from flying over the area, with more than 400 workers trying to put out smoking embers that have the potential to reignite the blaze.

The fire has scorched isolated valleys, gullies and hillsides of the Strzelecki Ranges and thousands of trees have fallen across roads through the area. Unsteady trees and broken, shattered branches still hanging in trees remain a threat to firefighters, police and other authorities assessing the damage to property and searching for victims.

And although the area is mountainous and rural, it is home to a sizeable population. Many homes have been destroyed, possibly more than 100, but many people in these hills just managed to escape.

Koornalla resident Megan Cheney, who lost her dream home, yesterday recalled hearing horrible screeching noises on Saturday as people fled Callignee in cars, as the rubber tyres on some vehicles had melted. Her husband, Shayne, said the road from Callignee late on Saturday as the firefront closed in was as "busy as Bourke Street". The young couple made it out of Koornalla by minutes.